Trickster

Here's another workshop I'd like to do.

The Power of Trickster: Coyote, Raven, Rabbit, and more.

Coyote is the modern world’s most famous trickster, though his colleagues run through every culture, from Maui in Hawai’i, to Raven in the Northwest of North America, to rabbit in Southeast North America and Southeast Asia, and more. Coyote will help us to understand the power and importance of Trickster, especially since (S)he was present from the beginning of creation. Coyote features prominently in sacred, creation stories as a character providing survival advice to the people as well as helping to set up the rules. Outside of Coyote’s sacred roles, (s)he has a collection of trickster stories, which, as one elder put it, are not about Coyote, but are about topics that are otherwise difficult to discuss. Trickster stories allow access to taboo topics. They include humorous behavior but they are not humorous per se. Europeans often focus upon Trickster instead of seeing the topics that Trickster allows us to discuss. More importantly, Trickster is the impetus for transformation and change, and has the job of protecting people from man-eating monsters and more importantly, from themselves. Trickster’s job is to monitor the people and to intervene when they become complacent and secure; in other words, stuck in their ways.

Following these considerations of Trickster (Coyote), we will explore how Coyote works within our own lives and stories. What are the times when we have been tricked for our own good? How did that feel? Who tricked us? Was it cosmic or spiritual forces, or was it our friends?

3. 50-word conference description (to be part of brochure – please keep it at 50 words or we’ll have to edit it down):

Tricksters (Coyote, Raven, Rabbit) have been with us since Creation began. They provide advice, help set rules, challenge rules when the rules become stifling, and make sure that the people do not become complacent. We will consider Trickster’s roles within our lives and Trickster’s influences upon the stories we live.

Narratives and the Workplace

Here's a workshop I'd like to do somewhere. It connects narrative to the workplace. Any takers?


Introduction: Regardless of our life’s purpose and activities, health is important. Current research suggests that physicians today address only 15% of the determinants of health. These other determinants lie within areas not typically addressed by physicians and are crucial for wellbeing.
Work is an important part of health. We spend most of our waking hours at work. We have more time with our co-workers than our families. Feelings of social injustice and powerless in the workplace have been linked to the occurrence and speed of progression of heart disease. Stress-related conditions are primarily work-related, including the injuries occurring when people are stressed and less cautious in their safety protocols.
Illness matters to company, even in Canada where the public bears the brunt of costs for sickness care. Absenteeism is costly. Loss of key personnel is difficult to compensate. Costs rise with more workmen’s compensation claims. Lawsuits can occur.
Overview: We will explore how the culture of the workplace creates stories that become a local culture of practice and knowledge. We will explore the role of leadership and workers in implementing, maintaining, and evolving that story and will see how the story is associated with feelings of powerlessness or empowerment. We will link this to our own personal health and disease. We will use lessons from indigenous cultures to see how stories evolve and achieve power. We will apply these methods of inquiry to our own personal health (or disease). We will ask how company and personal stories can be changed to achieve better health in the workplace. We will explore the role of meaning and purpose in health and disease and the need for people to find meaning and purpose through their daily work activities, to feel part of a community, and to feel valued.
Learning Outcomes:
Participants will:
Understand the concepts of story, plot, narrative, meaning, value, and how these inter-relate.
Be able to enunciate their own personal story, describe what its plot is, discuss the strategies through which the plot unfolds, say what gives them meaning and purpose, and relate this to their own personal health.
Be able to state the company’s story, describing its creation, vitalization and re-vitalization, and relate this to the workers’ experience of meaning and purpose in the workplace, of valuation, and of belongingness, exploring how these factors can increase or decrease health, absenteeism, injuries, and workmen’s compensation claims.
We will explore how to collaborative re-author personal and company stories to pursue greater health, wellness, meaning, and functionality in our personal lives and at work.
We will consider how these developing stories compare to traditional stories, classical themes from literature and movies, and popular cultural stories.
We will practice how to develop a plot line or theme that shows us where the story will travel as it is enacted and to explore how to change story to maximize the movement toward health and wellness.
Conclusion: Participants will learn about the power of personal and corporate stories for health and disease.